The Mitsubishi Pajero Owners Club®

[DaveMuttley]

Hi All

Very happy about this...  

Mr DRIRE passed the car on its second inspection yesterday.  I can now add these hints/dispel some myths about the process...

The main thing is, bringing our Paj into France was NOT difficult despite what other information might be out there.  Granted, it can take a while but that's not the end of the world.  

Going by our own and others' experiences, here are a few things that can make a difference at the DRIRE.  It's worth noting that each DRIRE inspection station seems to be different.  Ours (Montpellier) seems to be quite fastidious on certain points that others (Perpignan) don't worry about.  So...

1.  All glass including lights, indicators, sun roof, windows, windscreen need to have the EU standard symbol on them.  This is an E in a circle.  All of ours were checked for this (this is why they ask for the car has to be clean) and it got through even though one of them was really faint.  In theory, any Paj that's already been imported into the UK should have these already.

2.  We'd been told that the fog light doesn't have to be moved to the left hand side to pass.  Luckily we moved it as at our DRIRE the side did definitely matter.  

3.  The inspector at ours wasn't worried that all 7 seatbelts didn't have the 'E' in a circle mark on them.  He said it was wrong but didn't fail it for that.  I think we were lucky there.

4.  All lights were checked including indicators, and hazards with an emphasis put on the requirement for lamps on the dash that tell you what lights are on.  That said, we just told the inspector that the front fogs were "un peu de bling.  Ils ne marchent pas" meaning they were just for styling and didn't work.  This was because they don't have the E symbol on them, are apparently more powerful than normal french spec and have a mode on the switch turns the left one off      and I couldn't be bothered to go through all that.  Thankfully he accepted them as just styling!  In retrospect, it would have been less risky to take them off before going to the DRIRE.

5.  The constructors plate proved to be a the only real niggle.  One of the weights was wrong on it which caused a fail at test 1 so the inspector calculated them and printed out what we should have put on there.  Off we went and got a new plate only to find at test 2 that he'd made a mistake and it was still wrong.   .  Apparently it should have included the chassis no on the plaque but his info didn't include it.  Get this, the official Mitsubishi plaque attached at the factory that contains the chassis number isn't "EU Spec" so wasn't acceptable but a home made plaque is!    The downside is that this could now fail the CT as the official, home made bodged plate doesn't match the one on the chassis but that's a job for the future.  Anyway, he apologised for his error and just told us to change the plate and he'll pass it anyway.

6.  We were told by a local garagiste to be prepared to get angry and threatening if they fail the car and shout and holler.  DON'T!  They were really helpful with us and weren't officious or in any way nasty.

7.  Do turn up on time. The bloke with the appointment before ours turned up 20 mins late and was shouted at!

8.  The chassis number on ours is located at 10:00 behind the rear, drivers side (RHD) wheel.  Thanks to this forum for pointing it out!  It needed a good sand and a spray to get it visible again but it's worth having it clean and obvious for the DRIRE.

9.  Pajs seem to have been singled out on some forums we've seen as being a nightmare to import.  We saw first hand as a friend trying to import a 4x4 from Dubai was told they have to take it to Paris for further inspection.  A guy with a Hilux had had to change all of his tyres to conform as those on the car were marginally wider than standard and had to move his fog light too (as did we).  Another guy with a Surf had his headlight alignment checked whereas ours weren't checked at all.  I think the point I'm trying to make here is that Pajs aren't any more difficult than anything else to get through.

10. Many thanks to all those here who helped us through the process.

So, in summary, other than the rear fog bulb and that plaque, the process of getting the Paj through the DRIRE wasn't nearly as painful as has been made out in other places nor was it as costly.  The only pain was having to make 2 trips to the DRIRE which, for us, is almost 600kms.  Still, we saw some more of France and Mrs Wife got two trips to IKEA so not all bad (apart from the IKEA bit!)

Next step is sending the dossier off to the prefecture but we're spoiled and our Mairie does that for us so we can now see the light at the end of the tunnel..

So, we're awaiting the next step but the worst of it's over.

Cheers

Dave

[Google]

[DawnH]

well done you!!! bet you are chuffed now!!!!

what a lot of palava to have an mot over there!!!!

[Daisy]

Well done Dave   Great news !!!

note to self - must collate all this info into one post and put it in 'stickys' in forum. I will do this over Christmas - I promise  

I've actually joined a few French forums ( France forum I think is one?)  to try to dispell the myth that it's not worth the bother trying to register Jap imports over here ... there's a few people around ( who shall remain nameless) who seem to take great delight in telling people it's really expensive and difficult. Aside from the lady at the sous prefecture - who now smiles at us     , we've not met any French person who was anything other then helpful and polite whilst registering the Paj, the Volvo or the boat trailer. Caravan and box trailer are next when we've recouped a bit. If you have a bit of language, keep your temper, remain polite, turn up with everything already photocopied in triplicate, have done the research, changed the foglight and headlights, you are showing them you respect their system, and they are far less likely to get ratty and stroppy.  

For Dawn:
Why is it worth the bother? A 1995 Paj over here if you can find one, is about €5000, that's about £5500.
Car tax doesn't exist, you pay approx. 160 euros when you register, and that's it, for life.    The car tax is supposed to be on the fuel - but fuel is cheaper than in UK, even with the dreadful exchange rate
The French MOT is every two years, it's only difficult to get through if you haven't prepared your car ( as far as the testers are concerned ) for driving in France re lights, plaque constructeur etc